Character Interview: Favorite Halloween Costumes

I got super excited that there was going to be a Halloween-themed collection of short stories centering Elena and Cora, the MCs of Learning Curves. It’s always fun to revisit couples from romances I enjoyed, and I adore Halloween romances, so The Ghosts of Halloween is totally up my alley. These stories are adorable and fluffy and I enjoyed them as much as Learning Curves.

I thought it would be fun to get Elena and Cora to share a bit about their favorite Halloween costumes!

(As a heads up, this interview includes references to panic attacks, racist costumes, and a character uses the word slutty to refer to costumes.)

An Interview with Cora and Elena

Hi there, welcome to Corey’s Book Corner. Halloween is approaching, and I’d love to hear about your favorite Halloween costumes!

Cora’s Favorite Costumes

I absolutely love Halloween. The costumes, the candy, the creepy decorations. I love it all.

I would definitely marry whoever invented Halloween. Uh, if they were still alive and if I wasn’t madly  in love with somebody else. You can stop glaring at me now, Elena!

(But really though, Halloween is the best.)

My favorite costumes of all time were ones that I wore when I was little. You could to be all the cutest little things when you’re small – adorable little witches, dragons, hell, one year I was a race car.

Once you get to be an adult, you kind of have to make your own costumes. Otherwise you’re stuck with really expensive, really slutty ones.

Let me be clear, there’s nothing wrong with being slutty, but it’s the end of October and you’re gonna be cold if you’re actually going to trick or treat. I’m not about being cold.

Fortunately, I love to make my own costumes. If I was better at sewing, I think I’d be a great cosplayer. I don’t know I’d like conventions, ‘cause they’re a little overwhelming for my ADHD, I’d love to make cosplays for real.

I think this year I’m going to try doing something bigger. I don’t know what yet, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out!

Elena’s Favorite Costumes

I’m going to be real with you. Halloween is far from my favorite holiday.

The struggle of finding a costume that is designed for a body that’s my size, isn’t super revealing because that’s not my thing, that isn’t going to fall apart in half an hour of wear time, and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg? It’s excruciating.

When you add the fact that I won’t wear a costume of a character who is racist or bigoted in any way, or whose creator was incredibly bigoted, it becomes nearly impossible to find a costume.

As a result, Halloween has always been more than a little bit stressful for me. Before I met Cora, I pretty much ignored Halloween unless I absolutely had to do something.

I avoided Halloween celebrations at all costs in order to avoid the inevitable panic attacks that came with them. I do have to admit that Cora has come up with some pretty great costumes, though.

I don’t want to spoil the short stories for you, but Cora helped me make every costume in this collection. I’m glad I managed to end up with the one person who can create a costume out of anything,

About Ghosts of Halloween

Halloween is a holiday that is both loved and reviled by people all over America. It’s one of Cora’s favorite holidays, and a massive source of anxiety for Elena. Between the two of them, they get up to all sorts of hijinks and wind up falling even more head over heels for each other in The Ghosts of Halloween.

The Ghosts of Halloween collection is made up of three sweet slice-of-life short stories: Past, Present and Future. Each tells the story of a different Halloween that Cora and Elena have gone or will go through together.

Past: Cora forgets about a planned Halloween party she’s supposed to attend with Elena. Will she make it in time for the festivities?
Present: Elena gets a surprise invitation to her new job’s Halloween party – and costumes are mandatory. Will they come up with appropriate costumes in time for the party?
Future: Five years after the events of Learning Curves, Elena takes her niblings trick-or-treating. The last house they visit has a bit of a surprise in store.

The Ghosts of Halloween is a continuation of the Learning Curves series, but can be read as a standalone collection featuring the lesbian and asexual characters from the original stories.

About the Author

Ceillie Simkiss is a queer writer of all stripes based in southern Virginia. She is also a blogger, public relations professional, and freelance writer. She has bylines at sites like Culturess, Global Comment, and Let’s Fox About It, in addition to her self-published novella Learning Curves.

She started writing fiction as an escape from her day job as a small town journalist, and has been at it ever since, with the support of her partner, her dog and her cats.

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